Abbie is a Postdoctoral Research Associate within the Department of Global Health & Social Medicine. She specialises in international law and global health, with a focus on Pathogen Access and Benefit-Sharing (ABS).

As of January 2025, she is the recipient of a 3-year Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowship. Her project, entitled ‘The Past, Present and Future of Pathogen ABS’, seeks to determine:

1. What does justice demand in a health emergency, and
2. Is a pathogen ABS system capable of delivering such demands?

Abbie obtained her PhD in Global Health & Social Medicine from King’s College, London and she holds a Bachelor of Laws and an MA in Human Rights, Globalisation and Justice from Keele University.

Research

Thesis Title: 'Vaccine distribution from the WHO Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Framework: securing global health justice?'

This research seeks to determine whether ABS approaches to vaccine distribution are capable of delivering global health justice during an influenza pandemic, examining the requirements of global health justice within this context and providing recommendations for policy reform. Whilst the focus of Abbie’s research is currently limited to influenza pandemic preparedness, its outcomes will have far reaching implications within the field of Global Health due to its relevance to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and other potential future pandemics.

Abbie's research interests include:

• International law and infectious diseases
• Pathogen sharing and equitable access to vaccines
• Global health justice
• The securitisation of health
• Pandemic preparedness

Research

• International Law and Infectious Diseases
• Pathogen Sharing and Equitable Access to Vaccines
• Global Health Justice
• Pandemic Preparedness

Project Title: ‘The Past, Present and Future of Pathogen ABS’

This research seeks to address a gap in the literature and examine the present ABS system, both bilateral and multilateral in nature, from the perspective of global (in)justice, by:

1. Interrogating the legal, political, social, and economic drivers which created and sustained such a system
2. Assessing what principles should underpin the successful implementation and functioning of a justice-based approach to physical and digital pathogen genetic resources
3. Articulating a novel comprehension of ‘global health justice’ during a health emergency, within the context of pathogen ABS and access to medicines

Further details

See Abbie's research profile